i have always been interested in the groups size a 3 round burst from a M-16-A2. so can help me out here. i suppose other rifles with burst capabilty or full auto would be interesting too

hmmm very interesting....ive shot many full autos and some with the 3rd burst...never put them on paper...i put them on silloets just spraying away but thats about it...im one of the lucky teenagers that get to play with machine guns......more than half of my school would tell me to own a machine gun is illegal...after i was telling my friends after my first time they told me it was illegal...but its not and all the guns have all their paper work....they are very fun to play with...unless you have very good muzzle control i dont think youll get anything impressive...maybe an inch at 50yds if your really good with a 3 rd burst...thats just a guess on what ive seen...maybe next time i get to play i will see...thats a good question......

1 inch at 50 yards? You will be lucky to get a 3 inch group at 25 yards. 3 round bursts are not condusive to precision shooting.

The miltary is primarily concerned with placing bullets down range and not overly concerned with group size with the 3 rd burst. I don' t know what, or if, there is a military standard. An experianced shooter will do alot better than a casual shooter. If you ever have an opportunity try shooting an M-14 on full auto

I' m not sure what the three round burst rifles will do today but in the late sixties we aimed for crotch and pulled the trigger. Normally the last round would be quite near the left collar bone or left shoulder. The purpose was to wound low with the first round or kill with the second round or wound with the third. Naturally sometimes the first round hit the dirt and the other two would ding ' em. Sorry I can' t tell you we had good groups back then, but it seems that Marines are always in a hurry. Except when they' re waiting...to be in a hurry.
Good luck with your question. I' ll keep checking this post...I' m curious too.

I sure would like to see a picture of a 1" , 3 round group fired from a fully automatic rifle, at 50yds. Yup, yup.

critch

haha ok i thought about that im laughing at myself as i type this.....that is really unreasonable....maybe more like a foot at 25yds?? 3 rd burst really doesnt climb much if you hold on.....and if your expierience and strong you can hold it tight and squeeze off for them 3 rds and get them within a foot or 2 i bet at 25 not 50 lol.....an inch..i cant believe i wrote that.....i think i meant foot but o well...its kinda funny lol...sorry...i dont know what i was thinking....i think i meant foot...

I thik the 3 round burst group is a srong. you go got to hold it tight.

when i went to boot camp they demonstrated the 3 round burst on water filled ammo cans at 25 meters.All 3 hit and that was the best i have seen while in the military.

I' ve been following this thread for a few days now, just to see what kind of poop would be posted. Now from my experiences, when one shoots on full auto, whether it is an M-14, M-16, M-16A1, or the M16A2 with 3-round burst, it is more of a pattern rather than anything resembling a group.

Now for record, I have shot 30 rounds magazines at Figure 11 Ivan EIC targets (approx. 20" wide by 40" high) at 100 meters. Shooting from a prone supported position, with a very tight hold, the hit rate is between 50-65%. That was with a M16A1, 30 round magazines, and on full auto. At 25 meters on a standard M16A1 zero target, a 30 round magazine on full auto, with the same prone supported position, would pattern 6-8" , with approximately 80-90% of rounds on paper.
With the M16A2, on 3 round burst, hit rates on burst mode are better, simply becuase one has a chance to correct sight picture before firing the next burst. Still on a Figure 11 Ivan target at 100 meters, the hit rate only increase to about 75-80% with a 30 round magazine. At 25 meters, the hit rate is better with patterns in the 4-6" range and 90-100% rounds on paper.

Now when one jumps up to the big boys, like the M-14 or any other full auto capable battle rifle chambered in 7.62 NATO, it is a totally different story. Most people have probably shot a .308 Win round in some kind of hunting rifle at one time or another. But, that is nothing compared to shooting a 20 round magazine out of a M14 on full auto. There is no way any human could possibly control the recoil to get any kind of pattern much less any kind of group with something like a M-14. It is not that the M-14 in 7.62 NATO is that punishing recoil wise, it is just that there is no possible way to keep the sights and muzzle aligned on target.

A buddy of mine' s ol' man is a state trooper, I forget his real title, but he' s a K-9 Patrol Officer (drugs, bombs, and cadavers) with another title that means he' s the gun guy. It' s something like a tactical officer or something, it' s basically a S.W.A.T. and a sniper all rolled into one person, he gets to play with everything from the M-24' s, the M-79, to the fully auto M-4' s (with M-203 attached) all the time, needless to say I' m over at his place a lot . He just got a new AR-15 a couple months ago, and showed his boy and I how fun it was with the new 3rnd burst option.

I couldn' t keep all three on the same side of a house, let alone on a paper, he took the gun from me an says " no, do like this" we had a 5 spot target set up at 50yrds, and he three bursted the top two and the middle, all three shots were on the papers (5 8.5x11" sheets nailed to ply wood with 4" target dot painted on.) Basically they were 8" groups at 50yrds, and with the speed he did it, I was rather impressed!!